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Yasukuni Shrine

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The Imperial Shrine of Yasukuni, informally known as the Yasukuni Shrine (靖国神社or靖國神社, Yasukuni Jinja), is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was founded by Emperor Meiji in June 1869 and commemorates those who died in service of Japan from the Boshin War of 1868–1869 to the First Indochina War of 1946–1954. The shrine's purpose has been expanded over the years to include those who died in the wars involving Japan spanning from the entire Meiji and Taishō periods, and the lesser part of the Shōwa period.
The shrine lists the names, origins, birthdates, and places of death of 2,466,532 men, women and children, including various pet animals. Among those are 1,068 convicted war criminals, 14 of whom are A-Class (leading to the Yasukuni controversies). Another memorial at the Honden building commemorates anyone who died on behalf of Japan, but includes Koreans and Taiwanese who served Japan at the time. In addition, the Chinreisha building is a shrine built to inter the souls of all the people who died during WWII, regardless of their nationality. It is located directly south of the Yasukuni Honden.
Various Shinto festivals are associated with the shrine, particularly in Spring and Autumn seasons when portable Mikoshi shrines are rounded about honoring the ancestral gods of Japan. A notable image of the shrine is the Japanese Imperial Chrysanthemum featured on the gate curtains leading into the shrine. More recently, the visitation of the shrine by active Japanese diplomats and legislators have brought public controversy in global media. The current 11th High Priest incumbent of the shrine is Yasuhisa Tokugawa, who was appointed in 19 January 2013.

Phone

+81 3-3261-8326

Opening hours

Sunday
06:00 - 18:00

Monday
06:00 - 18:00

Tuesday
06:00 - 18:00

Wednesday
06:00 - 18:00

Thursday
06:00 - 18:00

Friday
06:00 - 18:00

Saturday
06:00 - 18:00

Hisanori Tamura

2 months ago

As beautiful as the shrine is, my only concern is to see so many nationalists praying here. I am a patriot that loves my country, like any other patriots in the world, but I am absolutely not a nationalist. And seeing so much of them are heartbreaking for me as I don't share the same ideology, but if you shade that away, the architecture is truly beautiful.

William Thompson

a month ago

A complicated monument to Japan’s war-dead from 1867-1951, including over 2.4 million names in the Book of Souls, which is worth a look on its own!
Intriguingly, there are also animals that are thusly enshrined as “victims of war”. I could not find any cool statues thereof but I presume they are somewhere to be found.
While, yes, approximately 1,000 individuals were sanctioned as war criminals by the post-World War II International Military Tribunal for the Far East, the monument has immense historical value highlighting the leaders of Imperial Japan.
完全一个尽量抗日的地方！

신홍석

12 days ago

2018year new beginning. So many people were there. Good sundet. Pray for world peace.🙏

Li Peter

16 days ago

History can’t be distorted. Even you are Japanese, if someone break into your house, killed your child, raped your wife, and finally get killed by police, are you willing to see their name put on national shrine and get worshipped? That’s totally a joke. They can never be forgiven. If Japanese can’t realize the sins their previous government made before, and didn’t take it seriously and apologize, they can never be respected

Dave Gibson

6 days ago

Quite large open space. Very peaceful space to relax in

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